Intel Philippines reveals plans for 2012

We had a roundtable discussion yesterday where Intel Philippines highlighted what had transpired in 2011 and also revealed what we can expect from the company in 2012. I know most of you are not interested with the past so we’ll keep you in the loop on Intel’s plans for 2012.

Netbooks to go with 11-inch

We learned that Intel has this guideline to manufacturers that netbook screen size should be limited to 10-inch. That kinda crimps display resolution and didn’t give any room for improvement for netbooks after all the years. Contrary to what’s happening stateside where some companies are discontinuing the netbook, for emerging markets such as ours, it’s business as usual. Intel lifted that 10-inch restriction so we’ll be seeing 11-inch netbooks next year that would give us higher screen resolution and support for smooth 1080p Full HD viewing.

The future of Ultrabooks

Ultrabooks are popping up late this year and they’re sure nice to look at but the price prevents most people from getting one. Intel is working with its partners to bring down cost so we can expect Ultrabooks late next year with mainstream prices (less than 50k). We’ll also see the smaller Ivy Bridge chip in next year’s Ultrabooks. Although there won’t be much performance improvement compared to Sandy Bridge, Intel is loading it up with support for cool features such as sensors, gyroscope, accelerometer, etc.

If you’re planning to get one, don’t wait for the next generation core processor, Ivy Bridge. The next significant upgrade in terms of processor performance is Haswell which is slated to go out on 2013.

Intel on smartphones?

Mums the word on when they will reveal Intel-powered smartphones and next-gen tablets but it will happen on 2012 and they will be running based on the Intel Atom Medfield. Intel Philippines reps told us that they will know more come February so if you want to get a smartphone now, don’t wait for Intel.

IPT Identity Protection Technology service

Previously, only business laptops have hardware-based safety measures against thefts through Intel’s vPro technology. Now, there will be consumer laptops that will have Intel’s IPT or Identity Protection Technology. A good example would be current Ultrabooks, something Apple doesn’t have yet.

Starting next year, Intel will be offering IPT as an annual service if you want to take advantage of your device’s IPT. What happens here is that as the owner, you can render your laptop useless when lost or stolen by remotely disabling the hard drive, BIOS and motherboard. Then bring it back to life if ever you have retrieved it.

There are other uses for IPT and if you’re interested, you can read more at the Intel IPT website. The thing is, it will also soon be offered to consumers as well so more security on your laptop.

Intel’s collaboration with Mastercard

Here’s what Intel and Mastercard are up to, a way to prevent people who has your credit card or card number to purchase things on their own. With the use of NFC and your Intel-powered device, you will have a safe and easy two-step authentication process that you can use to shop online. The NFC tag or device has your credit card info but it won’t work on its own unless its paired to authenticated devices such as your personal or business laptop.

I hope they will also introduce this to VISA and other local credit card merchants”¦ or even PayPal.

2012 is shaping up to be another exciting year for Intel and its ecosystem.

I think Intel is catching up with AMD on that 11-inch netbook that’s capable of smooth 1080p video playback.

I really hope ultrabooks would go as low as mid-30k

JmBalicano

I use one of the older Acer netbooks with the typical Intel Atom 1.6ghz, 1mb ram combination when I’m on the go. It’s okay for surfing, but any random YM messenger popup notification really causes this thing to start lagging like hell, especially with multiple tabs open. Really, desperately want to upgrade to something beefier in the same form factor without having to shell out 50k+.

Here’s hoping that Intel comes with a significant enough performance bump for netbooks. Or maybe the Transformer + dock goes down to sub 20k. Maybe that should be my Christmas wish.

i sold my netbook after getting annoyed having to scroll down a lot due to the limited resolution. an 11-inch could make all netbooks have at least 1152 x 768 resolution. might get another one when these comes out

JmBalicano

They’d still have to bump up the processor and memory combo for a lag-free experience even for just surfing the net. My friend had an AMD-based 1.2ghz 11 inch netbook that was even laggier than the netbook I use.

Of course, my opinion is limited to my experience with an older netbook so I haven’t used any of the newer ones that are better at eliminating that lag.